Railway hopper cars often are formed with curved sides and stub sills as illustrated for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,499. The sides include lower longitudinal bulbous supports called side sills and upper longitudinal bulbous supports called top plates. Flat sides containing the side sills and side plates are forced against transverse bulkheads into a curved configuration by hydraulic cylinders and pistons, for example as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,718,803.
In accordance with one construction, left hand sides contain a brake pipe which is inserted into the side sill. Otherwise right hand sides differ from like left hand sides only in that they are 180.degree. mirror images of each other. Thus, absent the brake pipe, the sides could be rotated 180.degree. to constitute either right hand or left hand sides.
However, rotating such heavy members when suspended from a crane is a dangerous operation. Once sufficient inertia is applied to a side to rotate it, it tends to continue rotating, and a stop is required to cease rotation. An impact between the rotating side and the stop may cause the side to disengage from the crane clamping fixture. Thus, for reasons of safety the assignee of the present application has decided not to rotate sides and to make right and left hand sides.
Previously because of height constrictions of the building and the crane structure, it was not possible to lift the right hand sides over the left hand sides and vice versa. Previously in order to move the right hand sides relative to the left hand sides, the sides to be moved were moved within the facility and often out of the facility on carts and then back into the facility at a point spaced from the sides to be transverse. The movement of these carts about the facility is an awkward operation requiring careful scheduling to avoid interference with other work.